Police identify victim in apparent murder-suicide as probation agent

A state probation agent who volunteered as a conflict mediator was killed Tuesday night in an apparent North Baltimore murder-suicide in which a child survivor was found outside the house.

Responding to a report of gunshots inside a home in the 3900 block of Frisby St., officers found a boy outside who told them they would find a dead relative inside, police said. Officers entered the home in the Pen Lucy neighborhood and found a 33-year-old woman shot in the torso and a man nearby who appeared to have suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

Police identified the woman as Candace Baird, though she was known to people she worked with as Candace Hurt. She worked as a state probation agent and volunteered with a nonprofit conflict resolution center, her employers confirmed.

A medic responded and pronounced both victims dead at 6:15 p.m., just two minutes after police found them.

Investigators believe the man, whom police did not identify because his next of kin hasn't been notified, shot Hurt and then himself. A police spokesman said the man was known to her through a previous relationship.

Police did not reveal the relationship of the child to the victims.

Hurt had worked out of the state's Preston Street office since 2009 and became a community supervision agent after earning a bachelor's degree in 2011, said Mark Vernarelli, a spokesman with the state Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to her family and to her co-workers," he said.

Dawn Koplos, executive director of Community Mediation, a nonprofit conflict resolution center, said she did not personally know Hurt but said she was "one of our better mediators."

"She was always available when we needed her, and we got very good feedback from clients," Koplos said. "It's kind of shocking and hard to comprehend."

Just a few blocks from the double shooting, police said, a 28-year-old man was shot in the head at 10:28 a.m. on Wednesday. Police said the man was walking in the 3800 block of Old York Road when a man walked out of an alley, approached him and shot him before running away.

Police said the man is being treated at an area hospital for non-life-threatening injuries. No more information was immediately available.

Anyone with information on the apparent murder-suicide can contact detectives at 443-984-7030.